Sterilizable instrument and appliance container



April 8, 1969 D. G. MONDlADlS 3,437,422.

STERILIZABLE INSTRUMENT AND APPLIANCE CONTAINER Filed April 1, 1965 Sheet of a lNVENTOR- 0; Dimirri G. Mondiudis ATTORNEYS April 8, 1969 D. G. MONDIADIS STERILIZABLE INSTRUMENT AND APPLIANCE CONTAINER Z of 3 Sheet Filed April 1, 1965 INVENTOR Dimirri G: M'ondicdis BY W M M,

W'WZ QWQ TTORNEYS April 8, 1969 D. s. MONDIADIS 3,437,423

STERILIZABLE INSTRUMENT AND APPLIANCE CONTAINER Filed April 1, 1965 Sheet 3 FIG. 8

H) INVENTOR Dimih i e. Mondicldis BY M M, M, WWMQML ATTORNEYS United States Patent 3,437,423 STERILIZABLE INSTRUMENT AND APPLIANCE CONTAINER Dimitri G. Mondiadis, New York, N.Y., assignor to Howmet Corporation, a corporation of Delaware Filed Apr. 1, 1965, Ser. No. 444,753 Int. Cl. A611 3/00 US. Cl. 21-83 2 Claims ABSTRACT OF THE DISCLOSURE A sterilizable container for surgical instruments and appliances. The container comprises an open-top, doublewall, tray-like structure integrally formed from a dimensionally stable heat-resistant thermoplastic material. The center portion of the double bottom Wall is collapsed to form a single layer of said thermoplastic material and is formed with at least one condensate drainage hole that allows condensed water to drain from the container. The double end walls of the container are provided with handle means integrally formed therein, and the corners of the bottom wall are formed with small projections adapted to fit into similar depressions formed in the to edge closure member of another container. The inner wall member of the double bottom Wall is formed with raised partition portions configured to define a plurality of separate compartments adapted to house a preselected assortment of surgical instruments and appliances. The separate compartments defined by the partition portions all communicate with each other and with the drainage hole formed in the bottom wall so that condensate will drain from these compartments and then from the container.

A variety of sterilized surgical instruments must be readily available for use by a surgeon in even the most routine of surgical operations, and modern orthopedic surgery requires in addition that a wide variety of types and sizes of nails, nail plates, and other hardware be available for selection and use by the surgeon as the need arises in the course of bone repair surgery and other orthopedic surgical operations. The surgeon, of course, will know in advance of the operation the general type and variety of instruments and appliances he will need in the course of the operation. However, the exact number, size and shape of the instruments and appliances he may be required to use cannot be known until the operation is in progress, and for this reason it is necessary that a preselected assortment of sizes and shapes of the various instruments and appliances the surgeon may require be sterilized in advance and made readily available to him as the need arises during the operation.

Surgical instruments and appliances in the variety and sizes that it is anticipated might be required by the surgeon must of course be sterilized before the operation, and the sterilized instruments must be made available for the surgeons use during the operation in a manner that facilitates selection by him of the appliances or instruments of the proper size and type. To accomplish this, the preselected assortment of appliances and instruments are ordinarily laid out on one or more metal sterilizing trays which are then placed in an autoclave for sterilization with steam at a temperature of about 120140 C. The tray loads of sterilized instruments are then stored until required for the operation. The typical metal sterilizing tray used for this purpose possesses many disadvantages amongst which are the tendency of the instruments and appliances laid out thereon to become jumbled together when the tray is moved about before and after the sterilization operation, the difiiculty in conveniently stacking the tray loads of sterilized instruments and appliances during sterilization and subsequent storage, the possibility of contact between dissimilar metals (for example, between the metal tray and a metal appliance) that might result in contamination of an implant device, and the difiiculty in manually handling the hot tray loads of instruments and appliances immediately after the sterilizing operation.

I have now developed a new tray-like container for surgical instruments and appliances which overcomes the aforementioned disadvantages of the metal sterilizing trays of the prior art and which possesses many unique advantages of its own. My new sterilizable container for surgical instruments is advantageously formed from a thermoplastic material which is capable of withstanding elevated temperatures. The container is of double wall construction which provides a combination of high strength and rigidity with low weight, and it is further provided with handle portions for convenience in manually handling the loaded container, with condensate drainage means, and with means for stacking the trays one on top another for convenience in storage during the sterilization operation and prior to use in a surgical operation.

My new container for surgical instruments and appliances comprises an open top, tray-like structure having bottom, side and end walls of double wall construction. The outer and inner wall members of the double bottom, side and end Walls are spaced a short distance apart substantially throughout the entire area of these walls. The double side and end walls are provided with a top edge closure member extending between the outer and inner wall members of the said double side and end walls about the top peripheral edge of the tray-like structure. The center portion of the double bottom wall is collapsed to bring the inner and outer wall members of the double bottom together to form a single layer of material at this center portion, and said center portion of the double bottom wall is formed with at least one condensate drainage hole extending therethrough. The double end walls are provided with recessed handle portions. These handle portions are advantageously formed by upwardly recessed portions of the outer wall member of the double bottom wall at opposie ends of the tray-like structure. The outer wall member of the double wall is further advantageously formed with small projections adjacent each corner thereof, and the top edge closure member is formed with small depressions adjacent each corner thereof corresponding to the projections formed in the outer wall member of the double bottom wall. The depressions formed in the top edge closure member are adapted to receive the projections formed in the bottom wall of a similar tray-like structure superimposed thereon.

The unique structure and advantageous features of the sterilizable container of my invention will be better understood from the following description thereof in conjunction with the accompanying drawings of which:

FIG. 1 is a plan view of an advantageous embodiment of my new container, one end of the container being shown partly in section along line 1-1 of FIG. 2,

FIG. 2 is a sectional view along line 2-2 of FIG. 1,

FIG. 3 is a sectional view along line 3-3 of FIG. 1,

FIG. 4 is a sectional view along line 4-4 of FIG. 1,

FIG. 5 is a plan view of another embodiment of my sterilizable container adapted to accommodate a variety of intertrochanteric appliances, one end of the container being shown partly in section along line 5-5 of FIG. 6,

FIG. 6 is a sectional view along line 6-6 of FIG. 5,

FIG. 7 is a plan view of yet another embodiment of my sterilizable container specifically adapted to accommodate a variety of surgical plates and nails, and

FIG. 8 is a sectional view along line 3-8 of FIG. 7.

As shown best in FIGS. 1 to 4 of the drawing, my new sterilizable container for surgical instruments and appliances comprises an open top, rectilinear tray-like structure having a bottom wall 11, side walls 12, and end Walls 13 of double wall construction. The double Wall tray-like structure is advantageously fabricated by conventional blow molding techniques from heat resistant thermoplastic materials that retain to a large extent their strength and dimensional stability at the relatively high temperatures encountered during the sterilization operation to which the container and the instruments thereon must be subjected. Thermoplastic materials that are suitable for this purpose include, but are not limited to, polypropylene, polycarbonate, polyvinylidene fluoride, polytrifiuorochloroethylene, vinyl chloride-acrylonitrile copolymer, polytetrafiuoroethylene, polyphenylene oxide, and the like.

The outer and inner wall members 15 and 16 of the double bottom wall 11, the outer and inner wall members 17 and 18 of the double side walls 12, and the Outer and inner wall members 19 and 20 of the double end walls 13 are spaced a short distance apart substantially throughout the entire areas of the respective double walls. The double side walls 12 and end walls 13 are provided with a top edge closure member 21 which extends between the outer and inner wall members of the double sides and ends about the top peripheral edge of the traylike structure. Thus it will be seen that, except for the center portion 23 of the bottom wall 11 subsequently referred to, the container 10 of my invention is provided with double walls substantially throughout the entire tray-like structure so that the container possesses relatively high strength and rigidity combined with light weight and inexpensive construction.

As previously mentioned, the center portion 23 of the double bottom wall 11 of the container 10 is collapsed to bring the outer and inner wall members 15 and 16 together so that there is but a single layer of thermoplastic material at the center of the bottom wall 11. The joining together of the inner and outer wall members 15 and 16 reinforces and strengthens the double wall structure and reduces the possibility of warpage of the tray. Moreover, the center portion 23 of the bottom wall is formed with at least one condensate drainage hole 24 extending through the single layer of material thereat and, as the inner wall member 16 is essentially level, condensate which forms on and drips from the instruments in the container 19 during the sterilizing operation is drained from the container through said hole or holes 24. In addition, the double end walls 13 at opposite ends of the tray-like container are provided with recessed handle portions 26, the recessed handles providing a convenient means for manually handling the instrumentcarrying container before and after sterilization thereof. The recessed handles 26 are advantageously formed by upwardly recessed portions 27 of the outer wall member 15 of the double bottom wall 11, as shown best in FIGS. 2 and 4 of the drawing.

The outer wall member 15 of the double bottom wall 11 of the container 10 is formed with small dimple-like projections 29 adjacent each corner of the rectangular bottom wall. Moreover, the top closure member 21 is formed with small dimple-like depressions 30 adjacent each corner thereof, the dimple-like depressions 30 corresponding to the projections 29 formed in the outer wall member of the bottom wall. The projections 29 formed in the bottom wall serve as small foot pads on which the container rests when placed on a flat surface. Moreover, the projections 29 of one container 10 are adapted to be received in the corresponding depressions 30 formed in the top closure member in another, similar container on which the first container is placed. The reception of the projections 29 of one instrument-carrying container in the depressions 30 of another instrument-carrying container therebeneath facilitates the stacking of a number 4 of such containers one on top of another. As a result a number of stacked, instrument-laden containers may be placed in the sterilizing apparatus, removed therefrom, and stored prior to the surgical operation in a stable, easily transportable stack.

The sterilizable container 10a shown in FIGS. 5 and 6 of the drawing is specifically "adapted to hold a number of intertrochanteric nail plates of the type used by surgeons who do orthopedic surgery. The container comprises a tray-like structure having a double bottom wall 11, double side walls 12 and double end walls 13 of essentially the same type as previously described. The inner wall member 16 of the double bottom wall 11 of the container is specially configured to accommodate 16 of the most popular sizes of the intertrochanteric nail plates. Thus, as clearly shown in FIGS. 5 and 6, the inner wall member 16 of the bottom wall is formed with a number of raised finger-like portions 32 which provide separate compartments or recesses for each of the intertrochanteric nails. The container 10a in other respects possesses the same structural features of the instrument container shown in FIGS. 1 and 4 of the drawing.

The sterilizable container 1% shown in FIGS. 7 and 8 of the drawing is specifically adapted to house in individual compartments separate hip nails and lateral plates in assorted lengths and styles. Again, the container comprises a tray-ilke structure having a double bottom wall 11, double side walls 12, double end walls 13, and other structural features essentially as previously described. As before, the inner wall member 16 of the double bottom wall 11 is specially configured to accommodate the most popular sizes of hip nails and lateral plates. Thus, as clearly shown in FIGS. 7 and 8, the inner wall member is formed with a number of raised partition portions 35 which provide the separate compartments or recesses 36 for each of the surgical appliances received therein. In this connection it should be noted that all of the separate compartments and recesses 36 communicate with one another and with the drainage hole 24 formed in the bottom wall of the container so that condensate that forms on and drips from the appliances held in the container 10b will flow to the hole 24 and then from the container.

The double walled sterilizable container of my invention is strong and rigid and is specially adapted to hold a preselected assortment of surgical instruments and appliances during sterilization and subsequent storage thereof in an operating room. The containers are provided with condensate drainage means and with handle means as integral structural features thereof, and they are adapted to be assembled in neat and stable stacks for convenience in sterilization, handling and storage. The use of an inert plastic material for the tray eliminates the need for wrapping of individual appliances which heretofore has been customary in order to prevent scratching of highly polished metal surfaces. In addition, contact between dissimilar metals is avoided which eliminates a possible source of contamination of the implant devices. Thus, it will be seen that I have made an important contribution to the art to which my invention relates.

I claim:

1. A sterilizable container for surgical instruments and appliances formed from a dimensionally stable heat resistant thermoplastic material which comprises an integrally formed open top tray-like structure having bottom, side and end walls of double wall construction, the outer and inner wall members of said double bottom wall, side walls and end walls being spaced a short distance apart substantially throughout the entire area of said walls, the double side and end walls being provided with a top edge closure member extending between the outer and inner wall members of said double side and end walls about the top peripheral edge of the tray-like structure, the center portion of the double bottom wall being collapsed to form a single layer of said thermoplastic material, said center portion being formed with at least one condensate drainage hole extending therethrough, the double end walls being provided with handle means disposed at opposite ends of the tray-like structure, said handle means being formed by upwardly recessed portions of the outer wall member of the double bottom wall of the tray-like structure, the outer wall member of the double bottom wall being formed with small dimplelike projections adjacent each corner thereof, the top edge closure member being formed with small dimplelike depressions adjacent each corner thereof, said dimplelike depressions corresponding to the projections formed in the outer wall member of the double bottom Wall and being adapted to receive the dimple-like projections formed in the bottom wall of another similar tray-like structure superimposed thereon, the inner wall member of the double bottom wall being formed with raised partition portions configured to define a plurality of separate compartments adapted to house a preselected assortment of surgical instruments and appliances, said separate compartments intercommunicating with each other and with the condensate drainage hole in the center portion of the bottom wall.

2. The container according to claim 1 in which the thermoplastic material is selected from the group consisting of polypropylene, polycarbonate, polyvinylidene fluoride, polytrifiuorochloroethylene, vinyl chloride-acrylonitrile copolymer, polytetrafluoroethylene and polyphenylene oxide.

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 846,030 3/1907 Hullhorst 21105 1,755,895 4/1930 Pupilla 2185 XR 2,014,745 9/1935 Regli 206-72 XR 2,726,404 12/1955 Hansen 2209 XR 2,740,546 4/1956 Ko-Walski 22016 2,939,603 6/1960 Young 22097 XR 3,013,656 12/1961 Murphy 206-72 3,103,278 9/1963 Kuzma et al 22097 XR 3,160,306 12/1964 Smalley 2209 3,247,302 4/ 1966 Lewis 2209 XR 20 MORRIS O. WOLK, Primary Examiner.

I. ZATARGA, Assistant Examiner.

US. Cl. X.R. 

